10 Questions with Cynthia Grow
Al-Tiba9 Art Magazine ISSUE11 | Featured Artist
Cynthia studied painting at Accademia d'Arte in Florence, Italy, and has completed projects at residences throughout Italy and Spain, as well as seminars at New York Studio School, National Academy School of Fine Art, and Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. In addition to studio training, she completed a program in Modern and Contemporary Art, Connoisseurship & the Art Market at Christie's Education New York and holds a Master's degree with a concentration in Modern Arts & Literature.
For nearly two decades, she has lived and worked between the U.S., Italy, and Spain. She is now based in her native Florida, working between there and Barcelona. Cynthia has exhibited works in New York, Los Angeles, and Miami, as well as galleries and cultural centers in Europe. Her work has been featured in prizes, publications, and exhibitions across both continents.
Cynthia Grow - Portrait
ARTIST STATEMENT
Cynthia Grow's work is informed by literature, poetry, philosophy, and film. She explores the interstices between art and language, engaging themes of memory, desire, and complex interpersonal relationships, playing on the idea of ambiguity, the liminal, and the spaces in between. Of the absent or hidden, the imperceptible, the unspoken – the things felt but unseen. Perhaps a complicit glance, a brief and silent accord. Moments that transcend time, space, language, and culture. Memory. What remains.
In both art and life, the artist finds what is hidden or obscured more compelling than the overt. Believing that hiding part of the world is inherent to the act of showing the world, she prefers to leave ambiguity in her work, similar to the poet's sense of reduced language to communicate, creating mood and meaning where there may be no obvious story. Posing a question minus the answer, she offers the viewer to become an important determiner of meaning, allowing space to experience his own feeling, to arrive at his own conclusion.
In the end, ambiguity is always the theme she returns to, searching for something imperceptible. For something haunting in her work, perhaps in a place, maybe in the other, but mostly, in herself.
Love Letters - Franz Kafka to Felice Bauer, 20 November 1912, Acrylic, Graphite, Vintage Book on Linen Canvas, 30.5 x 30.5 cm, 2022 © Cynthia Grow
Love Letters | Project Description
The series is a collection of love letters by famous lovers throughout the ages. The phrases correspond to excerpts from each letter, the text partially obscured by paint ground. Appropriating a pre-existing text and obscuring the original document serves as a mirror for the ideas and desires of the viewer. The idea of covering is twofold. First, these are private letters, intimate thoughts and words, often delivered in secret, hidden. Secondly, the hidden words act as a metaphor for the subconscious – an awareness, thoughts that exist just under the surface, almost out of reach, barely perceptible. The unspoken that exists in us all. As the words are concealed, and the paint eventually dries, small, seemingly trivial details – random words and phrases emerge, as if bubbling from the subconscious, while the larger picture and context are erased.
Certainly, this work is about human emotion — the spectrum from love to hate, or rather indifference, and all the messiness in-between. The paint, which resembles Rorschach inkblots, forms a ground from which to tease out words. Purposely scribbling gives the work a dashed-off quality, another metaphor for emotion. The pieces become a palimpsest of sorts, subverting and transforming language, creating a new form.
INTERVIEW
Your work seems to be greatly influenced by your studies. Tell us more about them and your background.
Prior to formal art studies, I completed a Master's degree in Arts & 20th Century Literature. Several years later, I studied painting at ADA|Accademia d'Arte in Florence, Italy, and have since completed projects at residencies throughout Italy and Spain, as well as seminars at New York Studio School, National Academy School of Fine Art, and Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. In addition to studio training, I also completed a program in Modern and Contemporary Art, Connoisseurship, & the Art Market at Christie's Education New York.
Literature, poetry, philosophy, New Wave, and Neorealismo film – as well as my own experiences influence and inform my work. If I am not painting, my head is usually buried in a book. It is where I seem to find comfort and understanding and knowledge – an entire world in books. Literature, by far, has been one of the biggest influences on my work. And continues to be. Whether it's a story, or an actual vintage book page in my text pieces, or a snippet of poetry that inspires the title of my abstract works, it always comes down to words and language.
Love Letters – Franz Kafka to Felice Bauer, 20 December 1912, Acrylic, Graphite, Vintage Book on Linen Canvas, 23 x 30.5 cm, 2022 © Cynthia Grow
You studied both Literature and Visual Arts. When did you decide you wanted to be an artist full-time?
After receiving my Master's degree, I went on to work in academic publishing in the Art Book Editorial Department at Princeton University Press. I later worked as a gallery assistant for a blue-chip gallery in New York. I enjoyed both jobs tremendously and sometimes miss. However, I had always painted and dreamed of formally studying art. But growing up in a small town in the American South, didn't have the guidance or resources – educational, family – to even begin to know how to do that. This was pre-internet! It seemed like a distant fantasy, a dream. One which kept haunting me, always in the background of my mind I kept silently to myself. While working at the gallery in New York, I began to see "behind the scenes," how artists operate, and in some ways, how much of the "art world" works. It suddenly just seemed transparent. And Easy. Something that was no longer out of reach, an epiphany of sorts, coming to me at 4 a.m. one sleepless night. Instead of always thinking "One day I will study art in Italy" went to "If not Now, When?" So I decided to save as much money as possible for one year to make this a reality. I put my possessions in storage, moved in with a friend who supported my crazy dream, worked 2 jobs 7 days a week, and soon enough I was on a plane headed to Florence to attend art school. And have been devoted to working as a full-time artist since then.
You already have a significant career and have studied, exhibited, and worked in many places, including the USA, Italy, and Spain. Do these different experiences influence your work at all?
Thank you. I feel like I am just getting started, especially since I've probably lived a lifetime of both personal and professional accomplishments – as well as some utter failures – and vast experiences before coming to this career. But I imagine that gives my work more maturity and I like to think depth. I've always felt disconnected in the United States, ever since a young age. A stranger in my own country, especially now, more than ever. It wasn't until living in Italy and later, spending long stretches of time in Barcelona at various art residencies that it all came together for me. In both countries – Italy and Spain – I feel like the "real me." The culture, the history, the rhythm, the climate, the food, the sense of community, beautiful friendships I have made. These different experiences have certainly influenced my work.
When I spend time in Europe, I am always trying to learn the language – Catalan mostly, but also Italian, French, and Spanish. I pick up books, often poetry books which have small, digestible pieces of text. It's how I learn best – visually. I need to see the text. Ultimately, I find myself reading and comprehending. And then, by some Magic, I stumbled upon something entirely new! And it fuels my art. This happened in Barcelona with Catalan literature and poetry. It has become my passion. Almost an obsession. A way for me to more deeply understand the language, history, and culture. And discover a wealth of literature that isn't widely known or translated into English – at least in the United States. So that has found its way into my work, certainly.
Love Letters - Richard Steele to his Wife, 16 February 1716, Acrylic, Graphite, Vintage Book on Linen Canvas, 30.5 x 30.5 cm, 2022 © Cynthia Grow
And what is so far your favorite place you have lived or worked in? Do you have any special memories related to that place and your art?
That is like asking a mother to choose her favorite child! How can one choose between Barcelona or Madrid or Florence or Venice or Rome? I am torn. Every place holds countless special memories for me. And fills my soul with something almost inexplicable, from the moment I step off the plane. I always feel I am at last "Home" in all of these places, like I can finally breathe. However, Barcelona – and the Catalan countryside – would probably win as favorite. Mostly because this is where I have been spending most of my time outside of the United States for over a decade and have developed deep friendships and devoted much time to learning the history, culture, traditions, and language. Though? I seem to speak Catalan with too many Italian words since Italian was the first foreign language I studied. My Catalan friends always joke "Cynti! You speak very good Catalan. IN ITALIAN." In my defense, many of the words derive from the same Latin roots. As for specific memories and stories? I could write a book. I guess the world will have to wait for that. One day…
Your series Love Letters is a text-based work on paper, where you use love letters written by historical figures and famous lovers. How did you develop this idea and choose the figures to include in the series?
The ongoing "Love Letters" series was born from an actual vintage book of love letters Correspondència Amorosa, published in the Catalan language in 1927. I found the book in a vintage shop I like to frequent in Barcelona in the Gràcia neighborhood where I usually stay. It's one of those shops, run by little old ladies from the Catholic Church, where I like to say people dump all of the contents of your home when you die. A veritable treasure trove mixed with useless junk. I always find something there. The book included letters from famous lovers, historical figures throughout the ages, which I found compelling and fascinating. And the book, the actual object? That was a piece of art in itself. Faded, yellow pages. Printed in Catalan soon before Franco came to power, who would eventually outlaw the Catalan language and printing of books in Catalan. It broke my heart a little to tear those pages and paint on them. But they were calling me. I had to do something with them. So I created the series of works for an Exhibition I was scheduled to have at an art residency, and ended up selling most of them.
Once back in the United States I continued the idea using vintage love letters books in English. As far as choosing the figures, it's somewhat dictated by the letters in the book and how I can best work with the text on the actual page. There are many letters I would like to use, but unfortunately cannot because the books are a compilation. Often a new letter starts on the bottom of one page, the text after and below an unrelated letter from another couple, which just doesn't work conceptually or visually.
While I started out and still do large-scale abstract paintings, I began the small text pieces at various art residencies mostly for practical reasons – lack of studio space, traveling, the logistics and cost of shipping artwork from Europe back to the U.S. I can't tell you how many times I have dragged a suitcase around the streets of Barcelona, full of just one change of clothes and nothing but my artwork the journey back to the U.S. I just dump it all and save the art! But beyond the practicality, I discovered that's where my strength and passion lies – it was a serendipitous blessing – in the books. In the text. In the words. These little pieces I would do ironically started out as "studies" for larger pieces I planned to work on once back home in my permanent studio. But they ended up being works that stand alone. And seem to resonate most with viewers.
Love Letters – John Keats to Fanny Brawne, Thursday 1 July 1819, Shanklin Isle of Wight, Acrylic, Graphite, Vintage Book on Linen Canvas, 30.5 cm x 30.5 cm, 2022 © Cynthia Grow
Love Letters – Simone de Beauvoir to Jean-Paul Sartre, Wednesday [27 July 1938], Acrylic, Graphite, Vintage Book on Linen Canvas, 23 x 30.5 cm, 2022 © Cynthia Grow
The series talks about human emotions and how we express them, and your intervention with the letters symbolizes how sometimes we hide those feelings. Was it difficult for you to prepare for this series? How much self-analysis went into the construction of this series?
I am always fascinated by human emotion and the psyche. What drives us? Especially when it comes to Love. Passion. Relationships. Who amongst us hasn't done something stupid, made a really bad decision when it comes to love? Uttered words in a moment of passion or anger we wish we had never said? These emotions connect us all. Certainly, this work is about human emotion — the spectrum from love to hate, or indifference rather, and all the messiness in-between. While these pieces may seem simple in execution, the concept runs deeper. I take much time pondering, searching for just the correct phrase to write on the finished piece. It must resonate with me. If not initially, then after I obliterate the text. The words often find me. The paint, which resembles Rorschach inkblots, forms a ground from which I tease out words. I purposely scribble, giving the work a dashed-off quality, another metaphor for emotion. For me, anything "too perfect," too calligraphic would just be robotic and negate the feeling. Beauty in imperfection. The pieces become a palimpsest of sorts, subverting and transforming language, creating a new form.
Obscuring the original document serves to act as a mirror for the ideas, needs, and desires of the viewer. The idea of covering is twofold: First, simply, that these are private letters. Intimate thoughts and words, often delivered in secret, hidden, intended to be between two people and their eyes alone. Secondly, the hidden words act as a metaphor for the subconscious – an awareness and the thoughts that exist just under the surface, almost out of reach, barely perceptible. The unspoken that I believe exists in us all.
In both art and in life, I find what is hidden or obscured more compelling than the overt. I believe that hiding part of the world is inherent to the act of showing the world. For this reason, I prefer to leave ambiguity in my work, regardless the medium. Similar to the poet's sense of reduced language to communicate, creating mood and meaning where there may be no obvious story. Posing a question minus the answer, I offer the viewer to become an important determiner of meaning; allowing space to experience his own feeling, to arrive at his own conclusion. In the end, ambiguity is always the theme I seem to return to. Searching for something imperceptible. For something haunting in the work, perhaps in a place, maybe in the other, but mostly, I imagine, in myself.
Love Letters has both works on paper and works on canvas. What are the main differences between those mediums for you? And why did you decide to use both? Does the medium influence the outcome in any way?
They are essentially the same. I only recently started doing the canvas pieces, mostly to bring to art fairs in which I sell my work. Again, the logistics and cost of shipping larger work to these venues is just typically prohibitive in making a profit. It's always a gamble because you never know how sales will go. I can fit these small pieces in a suitcase. The paper pieces always do really well so I decided to do pieces on linen, which I can list at a higher price point because it's a perceived more substantial material/support. I do like the outcome of the pieces on linen where I have left the canvas exposed, which to me resembles a faded book. I just exhibited those pieces for the first time at a fair in Dallas, and sold most of them, so I was pleased with the reception.
Love Letters - Ninon de l'Enclos to Marquis de Sévigné, [c. 1650?], Acrylic, Graphite, Vintage Book on Linen Canvas, 30.5 cm x 30.5 cm, 2022 © Cynthia Grow
Do you think writing love letters is still relevant in our fast-paced world? And who would you write a love letter to?
What a fantastic question! The simple answer is of course I think writing love letters is relevant. Or rather important. And should always be. Who wouldn't be thrilled to receive a precious hand-written passionate love letter arrive in the post? Something besides the usual bills, statements, and crap someone is trying to sell you? At least one would know there is another Human Being out there thinking about you instead of receiving some robotic e-mail, lame text or What's App. But? Sadly, the reality is how often does that happen anymore in our fast-paced world? Even I am guilty of this. I used to routinely write letters; hand-written, thoughtfully-crafted letters. Thank You Notes. Congratulations and Condolence letters. And quite a few love letters in my time. But like so many people, I seem to be so busy these days. Between the business and administration of being an artist I find it hard to just find quality time in the studio. To think. To paint. Create. Or just Be. Sit down and write love letter? By hand? I wish! Do I even remember how to write? Do my fingers work this way besides typing or handling paint? I would love to find the time and solace to write a letter to – well – every person who has been important in my life and who has touched my heart in some way. Friends. Family. Lovers. So many people.
My nearly 100 year-old grandmother recently passed away and my mother gave me a box of love letters exchanged by her and my grandfather during World War II before they were married. What a precious gift! They are intimate, tender, romantic, funny, and sometimes mundane. But to have this history in writing? To see the faded postmarks, to be able to read the exchange of love and hope and fear and yearning and longing between them that eventually formed a family? My family. I find it sad that in this fast-paced, instantly connected world we no longer do that. And now I am guilty as well, no matter how much I believe it's relevant. The letters in my series, some of which were written 400 years ago, seem timely and relevant as if they were written today. That's one of the things I find so interesting about the work.
Let's talk about the future. What are you working on now? Do you have any new projects or series you are about to launch?
I am preparing to paint for the remainder of the summer and start a new series of abstract landscape paintings inspired by the sea and sky as well as poetry, to deliver to a gallery in Madrid that I recently signed with. My work will be in a Group Exhibition there later this year as well as included in an art fair in Austria with the same gallery. Though I never know just where the Muse takes me until I actually put paint to brush. The work could change. I have a notebook full of ideas I would like to work on, but the time just passes too quickly to get to them all.
Currently, my studio is in my home and rather small so space is limited. Once again, this unfortunately dictates and constrains the scale of which I would like to work. I will also be preparing new works for two upcoming fairs in Los Angeles this autumn. Then there's Art Basel in Miami in December, in which my works will be part of a group exhibition. Spring next year is already coming together. I will be doing art fairs in Miami, Savannah, likely New York and Dallas. In between all of this at I am hoping to spend some time in Europe, visiting friends and traveling a bit. And of course finding new inspiration.
Love Letters – Alexander Pushkin to Natalia Pushkin, Boldino, 30 October 1833, Acrylic, Graphite, Vintage Book on Linen Canvas, 23 x 30.5 cm, 2022 © Cynthia Grow
And lastly, what do you hope to achieve this year in terms of career and personal life?
Personally, more than anything I am hoping to find a little time to travel and just "be." To discover new inspiration that I can use as fuel for my work. My end-goal is to eventually move to Italy or Spain permanently and continue working there, but that's a few years away. There's the reality of finances, being able to afford it and not suffer as a starving artist! So life is here for now. That being said, to continue to sell my work at galleries and fairs.
I imagine what is most important to me, besides my loved ones and family, is to continue to create these little language-based text works which are closest to my heart. I do think about the Market. But I also have to follow what is in my soul regarding my Creations. The work will find its way to someone. And if it doesn't? Does it really matter in the end? I can't say. I have no illusions. I'm just going to continue to do my thing. And one day find the time to gaze at the mountains and sea and perhaps pen a few heart-felt love letters in the morning over a strong cup of coffee. Take a long walk. Have a proper lunch and siesta. Then uncork a decent bottle of wine, listen to jazz, and paint throughout the night until the wee hours of dawn. Who knows? Life is a Lottery. Check back with me in a few years. And do check the mail. Perhaps I will have sent you a Letter.
